How do I update my apps on Windows Phone?

Now that I have a Windows Phone from Nokia – a Nokia Lumia 980 – I’m having to learn Windows 8 for the device. Ok. How do I update apps within Windows 8 for Mobile?

I’m a bit confused by your question because you have a bunch of names for the operating system that you’re running on your Lumia 980. The correct name according to Microsoft is simply Windows Phone. No “Mobile”, no “8” just… Windows Phone. The fact that it is a version of what is known as Windows 8 on tablets, laptops and desktop PCs? That’s entirely different.

If you’re used to working with an Apple iPhone, you should already be used to looking in the App Store for updates, but on the iPhone they’re easy to find because they have their own button along the bottom. Still, it’s quite similar on Windows Phone but it’s in the “Shop”.

Let me show you…

On the home screen of your Windows Phone, if there are updates, the Shop icon will change:

Here you can see I have 11 apps that have updates available.

To proceed, tap on the tile for the Shop…

Oops. Let’s try that again, when I’m actually online.

Yes, as you would think, if you’re not online through either a cellular network or wifi, it’s going to fail. D’oh.

Right. Online. And…

Near the bottom you can see “11 updates”.

You can explore other apps, get a new game, check out some podcasts, but let’s stay focused! Tap on “11 updates” (or however many you have pending).

As you can see, it shows you a list of the apps that have updates available. You can update them one by one, though I’m not sure why you’d do that. Most likely, you’ll just tap on “update all” at the bottom of the screen.

That’s curious. I can see weather and the camera app wanting to know my location, but why does Candy Crusher Saga need this information? That’s something we can turn off later (article to come!) but for now, tap on “allow” to proceed.

Note that if none of the apps that have updates need access to the location information, the previous screen will be a no-show.

Finally, you’ll start to see the apps download and update:

You can see Subway Surfers just starting to download, a game update that is a total of 29MB.

Once everything’s updated the Shop app will no longer have a number on it:

Mission accomplished.

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I do have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but first I'd like to say thank you, Dave, for all your helpful information by
buying you a cup of coffee!